“Ms. Puppy” back in Denver to face charges of murdering 2 men

DENVER — Detectives say the law finally caught up with a man who though he could escape it.

He’s 59-year-old Daryl Rasmussen. He’s a cross-dresser who also goes by the name “Ms. Puppy.” He’s also accused of murdering two Denver men.

Police and prosecutors have been on his trail for three years.

Rasmussen was homeless when the two victims took him in.

According to the indictment against him, he fled town the day after the murders in 2011, using the victims’ credit cards, bank accounts and identities to hide from the law.

A woman who did not want to be identified knew something was wrong when she hadn’t seen her neighbors for three weeks. “That’s when we looked in the window and it was a disaster in there,” she said.

This was in February 2011. Police found the bodies of longtime partners Ronald Ford, 63, and Ramiro Sanchez, 56, inside the home.

Daryl Rasmussen, who was their housekeeper and caretaker, had vanished.

“We just knew her as “Ms. Puppy,” the neighbor says about Rasmussen.

Investigators say Rasmussen took the victims’ IDs and money out of their bank accounts and started traveling around the country.

“We have him charged with economic crimes that involve tens of thousands of dollars, that he was using the vicitms’ of the homicides financial cards … those types of things to take money after they had already been killed,” says Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

Rasmussen was arrested in California last year and was transferred to Texas for another case.

A Denver grand jury indicted him and after three years, he finally appeared in a Denver courtroom Friday, accused of more than a dozen crimes including the two murders.

“We’re glad to have him back and hopefully hold him accountable for what he did in 2011,” Morrissey said.

Rasmussen is in jail on $350,000 bond. He is still wanted in Texas to serve a 40-year prison term there.